The Warriors (1979) (R)

The Warriors (1979) (R)
Directed by Walter Hill
Starring: Michael Beck, James Remar, Deborah Van Valkenburgh, Thomas Waites

Daddy Says:

Another film that I watched when I was my daughter's age is Walter Hill's The Warriors. I thought it was kind of goofy and over-the-top back then, so let's see how perspective affects it.

The Warriors takes place in New York, and begins with all the gangs in the various Burroughs being summoned to a meeting in the Bronx. They are to send nine members each and show up unarmed, to hear what the leader of the biggest gang in the city has to say. Cyrus, the leader, gives an impassioned speech, pointing out their strength in numbers over the city's police force. He wants them to join forces instead of fighting each other. But his great plan is short lived as someone shoots and kills him at the meeting. And the gang we've been following, known as the Warriors, gets blamed for it. Now they've got to make it back home to Coney Island, with every gang in the city looking to take them out for something they didn't do.

The rival gangs all wear their own colors. Some are low-key, but most are way over the top for gang colors. There's a gang that dresses like mimes. There's a gang that dresses in baseball uniforms with faces painted. Their weapon of choice is baseball bats, of course. It's quite ridiculous, even for the late 70's cinema.

We watched what is called the "director's cut" of the film on DVD, and it is a strong improvement over the original film. What's different? Nothing much content wise, but what has been added are freeze-frame comic book transitions. At the end of one scene, the image will freeze and turn into a comic book rendering. The camera pans across the panels of the comic book page to another frame which dissolves from the comic back to the film, thus turning the entire film into a live-action comic book. I can't tell you how much this improves the film experience. No longer does an audience have to sit back and say "that would never happen in real life". Now it's a comic book that we're watching, and anything goes.

It was good as an action movie back then. It's fantastic as a live-action comic book now.

Rating for The Warriors: ****3/4.

Daughter Says:

When we first got this movie Dad said that it wasn't going to be that good, but I think he changed his mind once he saw it again.

I sure enjoyed this movie. I was really into this movie with all its action and comic book stuff. It made the characters seem more believable when they add the comic book pages to it. The Warriors was a whole lot fun to watch.

I enjoyed everyone running around in costumes. It was like Halloween gone mad. The gathering kind of cracked me up because the leader kept asking if they could dig it. It was kind of really funny.

If I must complain about one thing it would be the ending. They were building up to a huge fight that never happened. But other than that I really enjoyed it, and I highly recommend you watch it. It was just a fun movie to sit down and enjoy.

Rating for The Warriors: ****.